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This Will Ring A Bell: Richards In Lineup, Makes Big Impact

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

MONTREAL - On Monday night, C Brad Richards was limping on a gimpy left knee toward the team bus at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. On Tuesday night, he was skating around the ice at the Bell Centre.

Richards was in the lineup as Tampa Bay faced Montreal, maintaining his streak of never missing an NHL game because of injury. He has appeared in 313 consecutive games since missing two games to attend his grandmother's funeral during the 2002-03 season. Richards did have surgery for a sports hernia in 2004, but that came during the NHL lockout and he recovered in time for the start of the 2005-06 season.

Richards was a key to Tuesday's victory. He assisted on Vinny Lecavalier's power-play goal in the first period, his 19th assist of the season, and scored the winner in the shootout.

The former Conn Smythe winner as the playoff MVP was hurt Monday when he crashed into the end boards with Toronto D Tomas Kaberle on top of him. Just before hitting the boards, Richards tried to get up but could only get to his knees, and the top half of his left leg hit the boards first.

"It was kind of a tough situation the way I fell and my knee hit straight into the boards, right on my kneecap," he said. "I guess I just needed to shake it off. It felt better as the day went along."

VOTING UPDATE: Lecavalier remains third in the voting for the Eastern Conference All-Star Team, according to a release sent out by the league Tuesday. The top three vote-getters will make up the starting forward line for the Jan. 27 game in Atlanta.

Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby maintains a healthy lead in the voting with more than 326,000 votes. Lecavalier trails Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson by just more than 1,000 votes but holds a 20,000-vote lead against Philadelphia's Daniel Briere.

Lightning RW Marty St. Louis (28,917 votes) ranks 21st among Eastern Conference forwards, and Richards is 32nd. Dan Boyle, who has played four games this season and remains out while recovering from a second surgery on his wrist, ranks 10th among defensemen.

NUTS AND BOLTS: C Craig MacDonald was a healthy scratch for the sixth consecutive game. ... Lecavalier reached the 20-goal mark for the eighth consecutive season. His goal was the 10th he has scored in 32 career games against the team he grew up watching. ... The Lightning will not practice today, getting the day off after playing its third game in four nights in three cities. ... Tampa Bay has been outscored 40-31 in the third period this season.

Erik Erlendsson

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